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■ 



MEMORIAL SERMONS. 



THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 

I 
) 

SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 



THE ASSASSINATION OE THE PRESIDENT. 



BY 

EDWIN B. WEBB, 

PASTOR OF SHAWMUT CHURCH, BOSTON. 



BOSTON: 

Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhill. 
18G5. 



Boston, April 19, 1800. 
Rev. E. B. Webb. 

Dear Sir — 

The undersigned beg leave to ask a copy of each of the discourses 
delivered by you in the Shawmut Church on the mornings of the 9th, 13th, and 10th 
inst., for the press. 

Approving the sentiments which they contain, and believing them adapted to per- 
petuate the memory of those momentous events which followed in such rapid succes- 
sion, and which gave to a great nation so much joy and such intense sorrow, we hope 
you will not deny our request. 

Very respectfully yours, 

L. R. SHELDON, 
DANIEL HARWOOD, 
OSBORNE HOWES, 
CHARLES HUTCHINGS, 
C. A. PUTNAM, 
MOSES W. RICHARDSON, 

Committee. 



Boston, April 20, 1805. 
Gentlemen,— 

The sermons for which you so kindly ask are very humble and hasty 
efforts; but, indorsed by a large and intelligent congregation of citizens, they may 
help to shape the popular opinion, aud to record the fearful struggle between loyalty 
and treason, and also the sudden transition from one extreme of unutterable feeling 
to another, through which we have passed in these times which have no parallel in 
national history. They are, therefore, submitted to your disposal. 
With ever-increasing aifection, 

I am faithfully your pastor, 

E. B. WEBB. 

To I.- i;. Sheldon, M. i>., Daniel Harwood, Osborne Howes, 

Charles Hutchings, c. a. Putnam, Moses W. Richardson, Esqrs., 

Committee. 



THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 



" The Lord is ray strength and song, and he is become my salvation : he is my God, 
and I will prepare him a habitation; my fathers' God, and I will exalt him." — 
Exodus xv. 2. 

The past has been a week of great joy. Not one 
city, not one State, but the whole loyal North, from 
Maine to California, has been jubilant. Not waiting 
for official requisitions, the people — spontaneously, 
unitedly, universally — have given thanks to Gocl in 
prayer, have united in songs of thanksgiving, have 
thrown their flags and streamers to the wmds, have 
made their houses from attic to cellar luminous with 
expressions of gladness ; and at the call of authority, 
citizens have assembled with bands of music, amid 
the peal of cannon, with waving banners, in vast 
crowds, to congratulate each other, and give utterance 
to the general feeling of exultation. 

And manifestly this has not been a mechanical 
sell-excitation: men have been moved ; hearts have 
been oppressed with feelings that words could not 
utter; and the shouts of living, sympathetic masses 
have been called for, and Te Dennis with full orchestra, 



to express even partially what every one has felt. We 
have rejoiced before, but then with fear and dark 
forebodings; now with no vague, oppressive appre- 
hensions, with no reservations, but with full and deep 
respiration, and unclouded hope. Men feel that the 
foundations are sure, that the instincts of a loyal 
people are right, that justice lives, that God reigns. 

And what is the occasion of all this gladness and 
congratulation ? Just that which called forth the Song 
of Moses from which our text is taken : " Thy right 
hand, Lord, is become glorious in power : thy right 
hand, Lor.cl, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 

A little more than a year ago, a modest, reticent, 
but able and magnanimous commander was called to 
Washington, and made commander-in-chief of all our 
armies. Up to that time, the strength of the Re- 
bellion had been once or twice checked, but never 
humbled. The leader of those rebel legions had 
never met his master. He was still abroad, free, and 
able to move when and where he pleased. When 
he chose, he fortified and lay behind his works ; when 
he chose, he invested the capital or invaded the 
loyal States. His power was unbroken, his spirit 
undaunted, his limbs unfettered. 

With a quiet determination, our new commander 
said that General Lee must be controlled, his army 
must be conquered. The strength of the Rebellion 
is here. Operations aggressive and successful 



elsewhere .ire worthless while the heart of the 
Confederacy is untouched. Quietly but efficiently, 
as the forces in Nature accomplish their end, 
General Grant set himself to his unmatched and 
terrible work. The sight is sublime, as, with his 
carpet bag in his hand, and a single attendant at 
his side, he crossed the Potomac to undertake and 
execute his masterful design. On the first secular 
day of May, 1864, he crossed the Rapidan to find 
and fight the enemy, — the enemy of the Re- 
public and the enemy of mankind. What work 
followed, for days and nights and weeks and 
months, in the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, and all 
the way dowm to Cold Harbor, across the Pamun- 
key, and finally across the James, and to the en- 
virons of Richmond and Petersburg, you all know. 
How many brave fellows found a bloody grave ; 
how many thousands found the hospitals only to 
sleep there their final sleep ; how many more 
thousands found themselves sent home with hon- 
orable wounds, — will be known wherever history 
is read. Such fighting, so determined, prolonged, 
and persistent ; such courage ; such fortitude ; such 
marching ; such endurance of heat and wet, inces- 
sant fatigues and bloody battles, — the world never 
saw. 

And how much we owe to that tenacity of pur- 
pose which never let go its hold, and never was 



8 

diverted from its aim, which fought till the blood 
stood in pools on the ground, and never failed to 
follow up an advantage, — is not known yet, as we 
believe. It evinces the true greatness of the Lieu- 
tenant-general, to sit there before Petersburg in grim 
patience, planning brilliant campaigns for popular 
leaders, and praising them with shotted salutes for 
their splendid execution ; doing nothing himself that 
the world can see or praise or photograph. There 
is something of moral heroism, as well as of intellec- 
tual greatness, in the man who thus silently holds 
the organized military strength of the Rebellion 
with the powerful grasp of one hand, and with the 
other points out what can be done in the Valley of 
the Shenandoah, and at Nashville, and along the 
Atlantic coast, and through the central and vital 
parts of the Confederacy. 

After a council of war, on Monday night, March 27, 
1865, at which were present men whose names will 
head new chapters in history, — Lincoln, Grant, Sher- 
man, and others, — the great army of the Lieutenant- 
general began to move, under his immediate super- 
vision. The solution of the mighty problem which 
has engrossed not only the thoughts and energies of 
this nation, but has interested and influenced to a 
great extent the nations of the whole earth, is about 
to be solved. A bold, stupendous plan is just unfold- 



ing its ultimate design. For five long, weary days. 
marching through dense forests, floundering through 
swamps, fording streams, drenched with rain, exhaust- 
ed in the mud. catching a few moments' sleep in the 
ranks, or upon the cold spongy ground, while waiting 
for orders to move, — for five weary, memorable days 
the uncertain struggle has raged. Back and forth 
over the same ground the veteran combatants, horse 
and infantry, swayed and surged. Friday closed 
gloomily for the loyal cause. The rebel leaders had 
become fully aware of the disposition of our forces, 
and of their own immediate peril. And, putting forth 
all their long-enduring, disciplined strength, our 
cavalry was driven back; our infantry was repulsed ; 
our veterans of the fifth corps, many of them, were 
killed, wounded, captured. But, as if helped by 
the inspiration of the Almighty, and confident that 
the hour and the end were nigh, our lines re- 
formed, and, becoming steady, once more moved 
forward, like a good ship that feels her helm again 
after the staggering shock of some tremendous wave. 
Craps are filled up, connections made; and feeling- 
one another's strength, and the confident, steady 
will of a present commander, the aspect of the 
whole field is gradually changed. An unseen hand 
ministers courage to fainting hearts. Cheers break 
out in well-known accents along the Union lines. 
The crisis is passed. Forward, forward! and wrong 



10 



long defiant, cowers before the right. Bebellion 
acknowledges its master. 

And now what means this joy of the loyal people, 
this exultation of loyal hearts seeking expression 
through every possible symbol of gladness and con- 
gratulation ? 

It means that the serpent, driven hissing and de- 
fiant into her den, and kept there by a cordon of 
fire, is making her escape with the whole slimy brood, 
along a tortuous way, — the only one open to them, 
— dodging and dipping their vile heads to avoid the 
conqueror's uplifted heel. 

It means that victory, complete and final victory, 
crowns the loyal cause. It means that the fortifica- 
tions and forts, and all the defences of the rebel 
stronghold, are stormed and carried. It means that 
the spirit and strength of Rebellion are at length sub- 
dued and conquered. It means that the so-called 
Confederate Government is a vagabond, without a 
capital, without a home, without resources, without 
revenues, without currency, without friends, and exe- 
crated by all peoples under heaven. It means that 
Lee, who was educated by the Government, as by a 
munificent mother, at her best-endowed schools, and 
in her best positions; who remained with General Scott 
just long enough to learn unmistakably all the re- 
sources and secrets and purposes of the Government ; 
and who, for the last four years, has been using all 



11 



that knowledge, and all his (.'ducat ion, and energy, 
and military skill, that with perjured hand he might 
plunge his sword into the bosom that nursed him, — 
it means that Lee, the pet and pride of the Rebellion, 
is foiled and vanquished at last. 

The old mother has had too many sons to stand 
between her and the weapons poised and aimed by 
traitorous hands. Lee is Hying, a criminal, lie knows 
not where, to escape a merited halter, he knows 
not how; his army beaten, his braves captured, his 
followers deserting. 

It means that the Lieutenant-general and the loy- 
al armies are master of the field, and master of the 
Confederacy. It means that slavery, the one dark 
cause of all our bitterness and bloodshed, is forever 
dead. It means, no more massacres at Fort Pillow ; 
no more Union soldiers in Libby Prison, nor starved, 
emaciated, dying skeletons at Salisbury or Anderson- 
ville, — names to be pronounced with righteous indig- 
nation, and remembered with a shudder. It means, 
no more threats on the floor of Congress, no more 
tyranny of opinion, no more forced silence anywhere, 
no more iniquitous compromises, and no more repeal 
of righteous ones. It means that the old flag, which 
was planted, in the resplendent morning of April 3, 
ISC"), on the ramparts of Richmond, conquered and 
captured by Liberty's thundering legions, shall float 
the emblem of strength, freedom, and justice, over 



12 



every capital and city and village and inhabitant of 
our original domain. 

It means that the war, the long terrible war that 
has trampled down our harvests, and burdened our 
industry, and desolated our homes, and bereaved our 
hearts, and made delicate wives widows, and helpless 
babes orphans, — this war for the overthrow of a 
beneficent government is virtually ended. 

It means that Republican Government, a Govern- 
ment of the people and by the people, is no longer 
a question and an experiment. It means that the 
people have the right and the capacity to govern 
themselves in peace and in war ; and, therefore, that 
the Republic of the United States of America is a 
government and a success. It means that our in- 
stitutions, affording security and liberty and oppor- 
tunity and education and religion to all men, are to 
triumph. 

Such is the occasion of our joy to-day ; and well 
may we congratulate each other, and utter forth 
praise, and take up the strains of ancient Israel, 
" The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my de- 
liverer ; by thee I have run through a troop, and by 
my God have I leaped over a wall." Well may we 
repeat after Moses and Miriam, taking up that sub- 
lime strain which the shore echoed to the sea, and 
the sea back to heaven again, " I will sing unto the 
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. . . . Thy right 



13 

hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power, thy right 
hand, Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." 
"He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; 
he breaketh the how, and cutteth the spear in sun- 
der; he burnetii the chariot in the fire." "If it had 
not heen the Lord who was on our side when men 
rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up 
quick when their wrath was kindled against us." 

Let me not fail, my friends, to turn your thoughts 
and your thanksgivings directly to God. As of old, 
when the prophet warned the king, " Behold the peo- 
ple shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as 
a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of 
the prey and drink the hlood of the slain ! " he ex- 
claimed, " What hath God wrought!" so now, when 
the prophecy has such a striking fulfilment, as our 
forces, almost without rest, or food, or sleep, sn-<<j> 
on, aroused, resistless, dominant Avt us repeat, " What 
hath God wrought! what hath God wrought!" 

Everybody admits, consciously or unconsciously. 
that God's hand planted the nation. He prepared 
the seed; he prepared the soil. He controlled the 
forces of Nature, and the will, and the wickedness of 
man, to the end that Plymouth Rock should be the 
landing-place of our fathers, and Puritan principles 
the foundation on which we should build ; and wheth- 
er the people of this nut ion purpose and execute, or 
purpose and fail, the building is going up. God 



14 

knows how to make the wrath of man praise him. 
The model of this nation has been determined by 
the great Builder, and made certain by the princi- 
ples which he has already wrought into it. Virgil, 
the first of Roman poets, represents the goddess moth- 
er of ./Eneas presenting him with a celestial armor 
with which he is to triumph over his enemies, and 
establish the foundations of imperial Rome. He ex- 
amined it all with intense interest ; 

" But most admires the shield's mysterious mould, 
And Roman triumphs rising on the gold ; " 

for on that shield, celestial hands had prefigured the 
destiny, the course and glory, of Rome. 

When a tabernacle was to be built in which the 
Israelites should worship, Moses was to have control 
of the work, as indeed he had of every thing which 
that nation did ; and the peoj)le were voluntarily to 
supply the materials; but it was to be built, the 
whole and every part of it, according to a pattern 
wrought in the Heavens. "After the pattern that was 
showed thee in the mount, even so shall ye make it." 

So for us, whether ive see it or not, before celestial 
eyes, wrought by the divine hand, our history is writ- 
ten in prophecy, — and not the grand outline merely, 
but the perfect model and all the working plans of 
the glorious structure completed ; and just according 
to that pattern all the resistless forces of this nation 



15 



are building. Who lias not felt again and again dur- 
ing these last lour years that we were putt inu- 
tile mighty efforts and sacrifices of the nation as 
materials for our future into unseen hands: thai as 
the two great armies, alternately aggressive and re- 
ceding, ebbed and flowed back and forth between the 
two capitals, an omnipotent hand held the scales, 
and weighed the issue of battles? Was God present 
with the people whose deeds the Old Testament re- 
cords? Then he has been present with us. Was God 
present when Israel and Amalek fought, and the bat- 
tle fluctuated in the wilderness and Plain of Rephi- 
dim, — present to give Joshua the victory? So has he 
been present with our armies. Did he have respect 
unto the rod of Moses as he lifted it high towards 
heaven in prayer ? — and when his hands were weary, 
and his voice faint, and the enemy prevailed, did he 
acknowledge the renewed exertions and united sup- 
plications of Aaron and Hur? Then has he been with 
us. answering our prayers and succeeding our en- 
deavors. Over all these battles, over all these hum- 
ming messengers of death, over all these night as- 
saults and defeats, over all these weary, exhausting 
marches through swamps and forests and mountain- 
gorges, God has presided, rifting results as huge stones 
from the quarry, and hewing and fitting them as ma- 
terials for the great structure which is rising. — rising 
according to the pattern shown in the mount. 



1G 



Let us thank him ! let us pitch our songs to reach 
his ear ! let us praise Israel's God, our fathers' God, 
and our God, for unexpected, thorough, complete, 
and glorious victory ! " The Lord is my strength 
and song ; and he is become my salvation." 

Let us thank God for the gift and endowments of 
the Lieutenantrgeneral ! Oh ! how easy it seems to 
conquer now ; but let us call to mind the feeling 
which blanched our cheeks, and bowed in the dust 
our hearts, when, after long and confident expecta- 
tion, in campaign after campaign, the only despatch 
that stayed us up against immediate despair was the 
poor mockery of our grief, " The Army of the Poto- 
mac is safe ; " that is, safe in its retreat, safe in its in- 
trenchments again, safe from immediate annihilation. 
All unused to war as we were, soldiers could not be 
made in a day, much less a commander. Besides, 
any man who is physically sound — and most are till a 
draft is ordered — may soon learn his duty and per- 
form it. But who is to guide these forces when 
armed and disciplined ? Who is to employ, with plan 
and skill and foresight, the mighty hosts scattered 
over the country, and time their movements, and 
turn their concentric exertions to account in securing 
the one great end ? Here is a demand for the hio-h- 
est order of mind, and for that peculiar combination 
of intellectual and moral endowment which has ap- 
peared only at rare intervals in the history of the 



IT 



world. How long did England seek before she found 
her Wellington? Franco lias had but one Napoleon. 
And who but Washington showed the necessary quali- 
fications of a captain during all our long struggle for 
independence? The times do not make men, they 
call for them ; and the more you think of it. the more 
deeply will you feel how absolutely dependent upon 
God we have been for such a man, and forgetting 
him into the commander's position so soon. ( >f course, 
no man can predict his future, nor is it necessary. 
Enough that, bold in conception as he is reticent in 
speech, quiet in person as he is efficient in command, 
modest in appearance as he is unconquerable in pur- 
pose, he has been endowed, and raised up, and put in 
command, to serve and save the nation. Cyrus was 
not more the gift of God to the Jews than is Grant 
to this nation. U. S. G. means hereafter the United- 
States General. Let us appreciate God's goodness in 
furnishing us this leader, and be thankful, — thankful 
to the Creator and Preserver and Disposer of men 
and nations ! 

Let us thank God also for the brave men who have 
executed his plans and achieved the victory. Oh. 
what courage to go forth when certain death stared 
them in the face! Oh, what a spirit of self-sacrifice 
to close up broken ranks, and press steadily for- 
ward across ground once, twice, thrice lost, tramp- 
ing iu the blood of the dead and dying, and over 



18 



friend and foe ! Would that those titled and untitled 
heroes could have seen this day, and lived to enjoy 
the victories which their valor helped to win, and the 
new future which their blood helped to inaugurate ! 
Such unfaltering courage from the Rapidan to the 
James, from Nashville to Atlanta, (a whole army de- 
pendent on one exposed rickety railroad, which was 
like a hundred men clad in marine armor going down 
into the deep sea to fight unknown forces, and only 
one little, brittle tube for all to breathe through,) and 
now from the Confederate capital to the capture of 
the Confederacy, — such dauntless courage, such al- 
most superhuman endurance, such continued self-sac- 
rifice, — let us thank God for such soldiers ! And, re- 
membering the patience, fidelity, and heroism of the 
navy, for such sailors too ! 

Mark also what a spirit God has given the people. 
How bravely they have sustained the Government ! 
How patiently they have borne defeat and loss ! How 
cheerfully they have anticipated the drafts ! How 
readily they submit to taxation ! How submissively 
they mourn their slain in battle ! Neither Rome nor 
Sparta knew nobler fathers and mothers than weep 
to-clay among our New-England hills and over our 
Western prairies. The God of all consolation com- 
fort them ! 

Mark also how God has disposed the nations 
towards us, compelling us to develop our own re- 



L9 



sources, and to depend upon own energies, keeping 
us clear of all foreign entanglements and hostile in- 
tervention. 

But I must leave the story of God's goodness half 
told : I can only hint at the multitude of mercies 
which should call forth our praise, — our praise to 
Him " who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders." 

In conclusion, my friends, what shall we render 
unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us? Shall 
we not serve him as these soldiers have served their 
country ? This is what we want now, in the Church 
as in the Republic, only bloodless, and, without carnal 
weapons, a grand triumphant advance. You all re- 
member the exhortation of the Apostle, "No man 
that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of 
this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen 
him to be a soldier." Were our self-devoted soldiers 
under obligations to the country that we are not un- 
der to our God ? If this war, on our part a holy one, 
is only subservient to the far-reaching designs of Je- 
sus, our captain and king, what shame ought to burn 
the cheeks of many in the ranks of the Church! En- 
tangled with the affairs of (his life, some of us can 
just make out to lender once a week, a pool- half- 
day's service on the sabbath, manifest^ having uo 
purpose or principle that does not govern an enemy 
or alien to the cause of Christ. Entangled with the 



20 



affairs of this life, whole divisions are seldom present 
at the regular weekly appointments of the church, 
and never at an extra service, though conquests and 
captives wait their hands in our Great Captain's 
cause. Ah ! if many of you who have enlisted in 
the ranks of the Church should bring yourselves to 
the standard of the New Testament, as you ought, 
or to the standard of that army discipline which 
makes conquering soldiers, one-half of you would 
condemn yourselves as stragglers and deserters, de- 
serving no share in the successes of the Church, as 
manifestly, consulting your own ease and convenience, 
you bear no part in her sleepless vigilance and pro- 
tracted conflict. 

When would our armies have won without disci- 
pline, self-denial, and heroic self-sacrifice ? Shame ! 
shame on such indifference, laxity of principle, skulk- 
ing, and cowardice as is found creeping into the 
ranks of the Church ! 

This world is in revolt against the Son of God. It 
is to be conquered and subdued to his righteous scep- 
tre. Already the battle is joined. Unwavering de- 
votion, prompt obedience, patient faith, and persistent 
purpose, — these are the elements that win. Let us 
each hear for himself the clarion call of the great 
warrior apostle ringing along our lines like the 
echoes of a bugle-note among the hills: " Thou, 
therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Je- 
sus Christ." 



21 



Then shall the Church, like the Republic, advance 
to new conquests and possessions; and our sabbath- 
songs thrill like a battle-hymn on a nation's anniver- 
sary. Then shall we sing, more sweet, more loud, 
-The Lord is my strength and song, and he is be- 
come my salvation: he is my God, and 1 will prepare 
him a habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt 
him." 



SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 



1 Chronicles xxii. chapter, 0-1 6 verses. I will not 
transcribe the passage, but only so much of it as is 
necessary to exhibit its spirit and the foundation of 
my discourse. 

"And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it 
was in my mind to build a house unto the name of 
the Lord my God ; but the word of the Lord came 
to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and 
hast made great wars : thou shalt not build a house 
unto my name. . . . Behold, a son shall be born to 
thee, who shall be a man of rest : he shall build a 
house for my name. 

"Now, my son, the Lord be with thee, and prosper 
thou and build, — only the Lord give thee wisdom 
and understanding, and give thee charge concerning 
Israel, that thou may est keep the law of the Lord 
thy God. Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest 
heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the 
Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel : be strong 
and of good courage ; dread not, nor lie dismayed. 

"Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for 



24 



the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of 
gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver ; and 
of brass and iron without weight ; timber also and 
stone. Moreover, there are workmen with thee in 
abundance, — hewers and workers of stone and tim- 
ber, and all manner of cunning men for every man- 
ner of work. 

" Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, 
there is no number. Timber and stone also, all is in 
abundance. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the 
Lord be with thee." 

Like David, our period of war and bloodshed is pass- 
ing away. Like Solomon, a new period of peace and 
rest, its offspring and successor, is about to succeed. 
Generally, it is true that every era, is the child of 
that which preceded it ; but the era upon which this 
nation is now entering is peculiarly and strikingly 
the offspring of that which is passing away. The 
present, these four years and more of pain and agony 
and travail are not merely giving place to the peace- 
ful future, — this closing present is the parent of the 
hopeful, matchless future that is just stepping into 
its place. 

And upon this rising future is devolved the inspir- 
ing but tremendously responsible task of building a 
national structure whose magnificence and glory 
shall be to that which preceded the war, as the tem- 
ple of Solomon was to the tent or tabernacle in which 



25 



David worshipped. Using the texl analogically, the 
points of discourse to which your attention is invit- 
ed are two; viz., the materials accumulated, and the 
laws which must govern a successful use of them. 

1. And first, as to the materials secured and pre- 
pared for future use by this period of war. After 
the boundaries of a nation are settled (and we are 
now pretty well defined in this particular, I think ; 
at any rate, between the oceans on the east and west, 
and between the lakes on the north and the Rio 
Grande on the south, we are not likely to have any 
hostile or divisive lines run for some time to come), — 
after the boundaries of a nation are determined, the 
next question relates to the materials, — the materials 
of self-development, of growth, and greatness ; and 
these, if the nation is to attain prominence and per- 
manence, must be abundant and varied. Not for the 
building of the temple alone, but for the building of 
the nation as well, there must be gold and silver and 
brass and iron and stone; and was ever a nation 
more abundantly provided than we are with all 
rich mines of precious metals, minerals, and ores? 
As to our gold mines on the Pacific coast, we have 
been in the habit of congratulating ourselves for the 
last fifteen years that they were kept concealed till 
those western slopes, which connect the lofty line of 
perpetual snow with the warm waters of the gentle 



26 



Pacific, came into the possession of a Protestant Chris- 
tian nation. 

But does it not seem as if the value of those mines 
was reserved especially for these days of war and 
bloodshed ? What should we have done without 
them in the disturbed state of our currency ? Where 
should we have obtained the vast amounts of gold 
that we have been obliged to export while we were 
issuing paper and promises to pay at such a fearful 
rate ? What a timely deposit these mines have 
proved ! 

And, so far from being exhausted, it would seem 
that we have but just begun to comprehend their ex- 
tent and value. We have gathered up what has 
been washed out upon the surface. The great vaults 
hidden in the mountains, and the richly veined ave- 
nues that lead to them, are yet to be opened. Dur- 
ing these years of bloody war, we have learned much 
as to the value and position of these deposits, and, 
therefore, are prepared to draw against them for the 
future. 

Great advances have been made, too, in the discov- 
ery of silver, of copper, and lead and iron. 

Of petroleum what shall be said? Who could 
have divined, four years ago, that seas of oil should 
be discovered in the interior of the earth during this 
tremendous civil war ? — an oil of so many and such 
remarkable qualities, that we have but just begun 



27 



to conjecture' the uses to which it may be put in the 
economy of civilization. 

Doubtless, many a property and many a company 
are alike bogus; and yet. after due allowance lor all 
speculation and gambling, the veal discoveries of 
precious metals, minerals, and ores, have been many 
and of immense value ; and around all these mines 
must be gathered from overcrowded centres and 
cities a population, more or less dense, of capitalists 
and laborers. Here, at the base of the mountain, in 
the forest never traversed before, except by the In- 
dian and the buffalo, manufactories will rise, villages 
spring up. and fields be cleared ; and whoever secures 
the building of a house, or a barn, or workshop or 
factory, or the converting of a tract of wild land 
into a farm on the coast of the Pacific, or in the for- 
ests of Pennsylvania, adds to the wealth and pros- 
perity of the nation. 

Our agricultural resources were large and rich 
before; but we add to them immensely by the issue 
of this bloody war. Now the sunny South is open 
to free labor and all the healthful rivalries of per- 
sonal productive industry. Here are vast plantations 
to be made as the' garden of the world under the 
economy of the Northern fanner ; here are unmeas- 
ured wastes of virgin soil waving in an unshorn wan- 
tonness of tropica] luxuriance; and broad meadows 
white with cotton from generation t<> generation; 



28 

and immense swamps reeking with a heat and mois- 
ture that may grow rice for the world. All these 
plantations, wastes, wildernesses, meadows, swamps, 
and unexplored lands stretching from the Chesapeake 
Bay far down to the Gulf of Mexico, and around 
it, are to be divided, like our Northern lands and 
Western prairies, into innumerable farms and free- 
holds occupied and improved by the willing, intel- 
ligent owner, white or black, and thus to become 
an incalculable means of growth and wealth to the 
nation. 

As regards all such materials of national greatness, 
the war closes with nothing; wanting. Leaving now 
the productiveness and extent of the soil, and all the 
minerals, mines, ores, metals, deposited beneath its 
surface, let us turn to the people dwelling here. This 
is a material without which the wealth of the mines 
and soils are of little account. Manifestly, there is 
a great difference in peoples ; one nation " living out 
feebly and obscurely the term of its existence, and 
then sinking into complete oblivion ; another exer- 
cising a powerful influence over its contemporaries, 
and leaving a luminous track in the annals of the 
world." Lord Bacon, speaking of the true greatness 
of kingdoms, says, " The greatness of an estate in 
bulk and territory doth fall under measure ; and the 
greatness of finances and revenue doth fall under 
computation. The population may appear by mus- 



es 



20 



ters, and the number and greatness of cities and towns 

by curds and maps; but yet there is not any thing 
amongst civil affairs more subjecl to error than the 
right valuation and true judgment concerning the 
power and forces of a State." 

"Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, good- 
ly races of horse, chariots of war. . . . ordnance, artil- 
lery and the like, — all this is but a sheep in a lion's 
skin, except the breed and disposition of the people he 
stout and warlike!' Just at this point was our weak- 
ness. Our pursuits, our education, our love of wealth 
and ease, had unfitted all the inhabitants of the free 
States for the perilous adventure and bloody carnage 
of war. We had every thing else, but we had not 
the stout disposition and warlike temper. We had 
become broad of forehead, but narrow of chest, in- 
tellectual and far-sighted, but weak of nerve and 
faint of heart. The dollar, so grateful to the palm, 
had unfitted it to clasp the sword and the musket. 
Our young men sought places behind the counter, 
avoided the out-of-door toil, the frown of the ele- 
ments, and the heat of the sun; and so they had 
come to have neither strength for the camp nor cour- 
age for the fight. They could not and they would 
not go to war. So multitudes believed ; and thus our 
Government was like a rich prize, waitingonlya mailed 
hand to pluck it. — such was the talk on the floor of 
Congress, such was the expectation of our enemies; 



30 

but I need not say how completely the war has revo- 
lutionized and corrected all this. The spirit of '76 
had not died with our fathers. The heroic spirit of 
Spartan mothers was in our women ; and the endur- 
ance of Roman soldiers in the men that answered to 
the country's call. 

We have discovered or developed that stock and 
spirit, and marvellous power of adaptation, which, 
with the blessing of God, insures the perpetuity of 
our Government and our free institutions against all 
secession and revolt at home, against all interference 
and insult from abroad. 

All unprepared for such a gigantic and formidable 
rebellion, and abhorring the carnival of war, we have, 
nevertheless, created a navy which exacts the most 
defereutial regard of the nations ; and, turning the 
country into a camp, and the makers of cars and 
pianos into the makers of cannons and rifles, we 
have tried and settled the question of self-preserva- 
tion ; and it will be a new element in our future, — 
a truth demonstrated and priceless, that the Republic 
wants neither living patriotism, nor the people war- 
like power. 

And, in settling the question of self-preservation, 
we have also settled the question of capacity, — the 
capacity of the people to govern themselves. How- 
ever clearly the right of self-government may be de- 
duced from abstract principles, to maintain that right 



31 



successfully, without the capacity of self-government, 
is clearly impossible and absurd. We had kept along 
well enough in peace, as the most unseaworthy craft 

may keep her keel in smooth water, and the most in- 
competent pilot hug the land in fair weather. Up to 
1861, it was an open question, whether the people of 
this Republic were capable of self-government. Then 
came the storm and test ; and who was certain of the 
issue? Who had faith in the people then ? Some 
voices will be very loud now, telling of courage and 
.confidence and prophecy; but no man heard them 
in 1861. We listened in vain for a clear, command- 
ing utterance from any quarter. No man knew what 
to do. Those who .should have directed and led 
the way stood paralyzed. Senators left their seats. 
States seceded and organized within the limits and 
jurisdiction of the United States. Our statesmen 
faltered, — made defenceless, apparently, by the Con- 
stitution which they had sworn to defend. Our politi- 
cians babbled more than usual. The Old World looked 
from her thrones across the water, and said. " Yes, 
yes, 1 told you so: the great bubble has burst; your 
Republic has gone up!" 

But by and by Beauregard opened fire on Sumter, 
humbling the flag, which, after four years, in the shot 
and smoke of battle, goes up again to-morrow, to float 
in triumph over the old fort, and over the humiliation 
of every traitor that has ever lifted his hand to assail 



32 



it ; and that fire was something that the 2)ec>2)le could 
understand and decide about : that was an act of war 
which went booming through the land, waking a pow- 
er that instantly took control of the Government, — 
comprehending the issue, and rushing volunteers into 
the ranks by the hundred thousand. Resistance — 
instantaneous, unconcerted, sympathetic, inflexible 
resistance — evinced the unity, the instinct, and the 
purpose of the people ; and in all these four years, 
tried sorely, disappointed in the repulse and defeat 
of their armies, impatient of delays, the people have 
never faltered. Politicians faltered ; many of the chief 
rulers began to think of retreat, of some kind of set- 
tlement; newspaper editors cried, Enough! — enough 
of blood, enough of drafts, enough of debt! — and 
hied them away from the great city to the Can- 
ada shore, by the Falls, to plot something, to do some- 
thing, they knew not what ; but the people, following 
their instincts, held steadily on their way as if in- 
spired by the Almighty. There was no wavering, no 
signs of weakness, no want of capacity, with the 
people. 

In addition to all this, and adding immensely to 
the strain, in the very midst of the storm and fury 
of civil war, a Presidential election came. The polls 
were opened ; bayonets did not guard nor govern 
them. The day passed as quietly as the sun runs 
his course, and closed with benedictions and doxolo- 



33 



gies ; and the capacity of the people for self-govern- 
ment is proved. The question of capacity is settled 
and recorded forever. A gifted and worthy son of 
Massachusetts, speaking at a time when every 
mind was burdened with apprehension, says, "If the 
people shall go through this election freely and fairly, 
whatever may be the result as regards parties, our 
institutions will have received a triumph : no nobler 
spectacle will have been witnessed in this land, since 
it first asserted its title to be called a land of liberty." 
Behold, the triumph, the nobler spectacle ! 

Another question, and one of vast importance in 
this nation, has been settled ; and the conclusion, defi- 
nite and dominant, is one of the grandest materials 
to be built into our rising future : I mean the ques- 
tion of State sovereignty. Out of this doctrine of 
State sovereignty comes the claim to declare null 
and void a law of the United States, — out of this 
comes secession and war. This suicidal doctrine of 
State sovereignty is not in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence : that reads, " We, therefore, the represen- 
tatives of the United States of America, . . . by the 
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemn- 
ly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and independent 
States." Mark two things : 1. This is done by author- 
ity, not of the States, but of the people. 2. The 



34 

States are declared " free, independent," but not sov- 
ereign. 

The doctrine was in the old confederation, which 
lasted thirteen years from the time of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and was a failure. 

The doctrine is not in the Constitution. That starts 
off, like the full sweep and swell of the sea : " We, 
the i^oi^le of the United States, ... do ordain and 
establish this Constitution." Our national Govern- 
ment is not the creation of sovereign States, — is not 
a compact, or league, to which they may accede, and 
from which they may secede. This is the " people's 
Constitution, the people's Government, made for the 
people, made by the people, and answerable to the 
people ; " and this same people, and not sovereign 
States, have declared this national Government su- 
preme, and the Constitution the supreme law of the 
land. " This Constitution . . . shall be the supreme 
law of the land, . . . any thing in the constitution 
or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 
John Quincy Adams says tersely, speaking of this 
doctrine of State sovereignty, " The Declaration says, 
It is not in me. The Constitution says, It is not in 
me." 

And yet, this very doctrine, having no fixed foun- 
dation in our history, and none in the great exponents 
of our national life, and absolutely destructive of the 
very idea of self-preservation, exposed and exploded 



:;:. 



by Mr. Webster in his reply to Hayne, and again 

triumphantly denied as false, and denounced as sui- 
cidal, in his reply to Calhoun. — this doctrine, like the 
genius of evil, has ever been intruding its bastard 
presence through all our history. No argument could 
expel it from the minds of Southern men. They 
wanted to believe it, and they would believe it. From 
history, from argument, on the floor of the senate, 
from the judgment of the people, they appealed to 
the bloody arbitrament of the sword; and the decision 
is again, as always, against them, — triumphantly, 
overwhelmingly against them. There is no other 
appeal. Beaten on every field ; compelled to surren- 
der their armies as prisoners of war; in the midst of 
all the poverty, mourning, anguish, and desolation, 
which they have brought upon themselves, compelled 
to see the old flag raised again upon the forts, arse- 
nals, post-offices, and custom-houses of the United 
States. — they are not likely to repeat their appeal 
to the sword. The question of State sovereignty is, 
therefore, settled ; and the settlement is a corner- 
stone in our new structure. 

And the settlement of this question settles the 
policy of the Government and the destiny of the 
South. The Government must sustain the loyal 
men of the South, whatever their social condition or 
color. Any other hypothesis is too base to lie enter- 
tained. Multitudes of these rebel leaders have lied. 



36 



abandoning their homes, their social position, their 
property. Loyal men, having no occasion to fly, have 
remained, and must occupy these vacant places and 
this abandoned property. Already this transfer has 
been made largely, is now being made rapidly, will 
continue to be made heavily; and these loyal 
men, established directly by the Government on these 
rice lands and cotton plantations, or in the cities 
through the failure of rebels to pay their taxes or re- 
deem their estates, — these loyal men, having come 
into the possession of the forfeited social position and 
property of the guilty, must receive three things ; viz., 
1. The jealous protection of the Government. 2. The 
unqualified support of the Government. 3. And the 
immense patronage of the Government. And then, 
further, if human nature can be relied upon as a basis 
of reasoning, these men will appeal to each other — 
those who are there, and those who shall go there — 
for mutual support ; and they will appeal to the Gov- 
ernment against the restoration, and against the re- 
turn, of those known by their neighbors to be guilty, 
as well as against those who have confessed their guilt 
by flight, or by the arms captured in their hands. 
Let us not be disturbed, therefore ; for there are causes 
at work, whatever may be the leniency of our nation- 
al authority, — causes that have gone too far to be 
resisted or controlled, — causes which must decide 
the future of the South. Let Congress keep strictly 



within its power to inflict punishment for treason, 
and maintain that "No attainder of treason shall 
work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except for 
life." Those leaders in rebellion are to be leaders no 
more. Passing those who will pay the penalty of 
their crime with their lives, — as some of them surely 
must, or all crime go unpunished, — not one of those 
men who sat in the councils of the nation, nor one of 
those who, with perjured hands, drew their swords 
against the Government that had educated and sup- 
ported them, — not one of those traitors, nor their 
children, will ever regain their former position. The 
power is neither with them nor their constituents. 
It has passed at the fountain into other hands. The 
road to their old supremacy is held, at the popular 
end of it, by other people ; and the very gate of en- 
trance controlled by new views, new doctrines, and 
new sympathies. These Southern men have yet to 
learn, and possibly a few others also, how completely 
they have revolutionized their own societ} T . Hence- 
forth, the Government is a unit, controlled and worked 
in the interests of loyalty, freedom, and nationality ; 
and this will be found another and a mighty element 
in our rising future. 

Such, my friends, as well as I can describe them 
now, are some of the elements or materials gathered 
and prepared by this war for the building which is 
to rise in the days of peace upon which we are en- 



38 



tering ; and they are as essential and as abundant 
certainly as the materials prepared by David for the 
building of the temple. 

I have been compelled to write in weariness and 
in haste ; but I cannot conclude without touching an 
essentially practical thought for us all. How shall 
these materials be put together? on what founda- 
tion ? in accordance with what laws ? beautified with 
what ornament ? 

1. First as to the foundation. The temple, which 
is the glory of Jerusalem, rested on deep founda- 
tions of solid rock; and so our vast national struc- 
ture must rest upon an immutable foundation ; that 
is, upon the fundamental doctrines and principles of 
the inspired word. The Christian religion is the only 
secure basis on which we can build. 

Expediency has its place in the affairs of Govern- 
ment ; but, as a foundation on which to raise a vast 
and permanent superstructure, it is a quicksand. 
Neither can morality alone bear the tremendous 
Aveight of Government. Religion — the religion of 
the New Testament, vital, immutable, eternal — is 
our only foundation. 

Washington, in his Farewell Address, says, " Reli- 
gion and morality are indispensable supports of every 
habit and disposition that can contribute to national 
prosperity ; " and then adds like a discriminating 
preacher of the gospel, " and let us with caution in- 



39 



dulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained 
without religion, — morality cannot prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principle." And then he adds with 
a power of exhortation which has Lost nothing of its 
point or pertinency, "Who, that is a sincere friend to 
the Government, can look with indifference upon at- 
tempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?" 

The declaration of the prophet has been mourn- 
fully illustrated in the downfall of many and mighty 
structures: "For the nation and kingdom that will 
not serve thee shall perish/' Jesus Christ is the cor- 
ner-stone of our national as of our personal salva- 
tion. 

'1. Then again : in accordance with what laws shall 
we build? There is no objection to a leaning tower, 
as an object of curiosity to attract the traveller; but 
the walls that are to stand must rise in accordance 
with the laws of gravitation: not more surely must 
the fabric of the nation rise in accordance with the 
laws of God. "This way of tying walls together 
with iron, instead of making them of that substance 
and form, that they shall naturally poise themselves 
upon their butment, is against the rules of good 
architecture," says one ; and George Herbert has 
this line: "Houses are built by rule, and common- 
wealths." 

To determine what the will of God is, as respects 
society, and to define that will in laws to which the 



40 



judgment and conscience of the people will respond, 
is the great work of the legislator. To re-affirm the 
ordinances of Nature, to re-enact the laws of the 
Creator and Sovereign and Judge of the world, — 
this is the essence of all wise legislation. 

"We are indeed through the war ; but we have a 
mighty work on our hands, — one over which, in the 
midst of all our joy, we may well fast and pray, — a 
work requiring the profoundest wisdom, the firmest 
adherence to principle, — a work that can only be done 
in obedience to the commands of God. 

This is what we must do, — all the people of this 
land, — render the hearty, scrupulous obedience of 
Christian men in all our work. No mistake is more 
fatal than that a great nation, with such materials as 
we have, can afford to be lax and lawless and irreli- 
gious. Just the reverse is true. Any thing that will 
live, endure, must render an obedience stricter as it is 
greater. For instance, a grain of dust may not al- 
ways and uniformly obey the laws of gravitation ; 
but the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars, must 
obey. The great ocean must obey influences that 
little lakes and rivers are not required to recognize 
even. 

Just so, like the sun and the sea, this nation must 
obey the laws and precepts of the Almighty. Let 
us each one, with heart and hand, with lip and life, 
however humble, however lofty our part, do all in 



41 



strictest obedience to Him who filled the temple with 
his glory, and honors them that honor him! 

3. And, finally, as to the adorning of our temple : 
above all the splendor of art, above all the crea- 
tions of genius in stone or on canvas, let it be like 
the inscription on the bells of the horses in the last 
days; — on all our door-posts and windows, on ceiling 
and walls and floor ; let it be, " The beauty of holi- 
ness ; " " Holiness to the Lord ; " and let it be reflected 
by all the builders, " The ornament of a meek and 
quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great 
price." " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, . . . the fast 
of the fourth month shall be, to the house of Judah, 
joy and gladness and cheerful feasts : . . . therefore 
love the truth and peace." 

And do thou, Lord, for whose sake we would build 
our temple enduring, lofty, and beautiful, " make us 
glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflict- 
ed us, and the years Avherein we have seen evil. Let 
thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory 
unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord 
our God be upon us : and establish thou the work of 
our hands upon us ; yea, the work of our hands es- 
tablish thou it." 



THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 



He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, whal 
of the night? 

The Watchman sail!, The morning conieth, and also the night. 



These words seem to me strikingly appropriate 
to our present circumstances. Last Sabbath morn- 
ing it was my privilege to place before your minds 
some reasons for thankfulness, — thankfulness to 
God. Then the streets were decked with symbols 
of joy; gladness in welcome accents broke from 
every lip. Men's countenances were bright, as if 
reflecting the coming of the morning. We clasped 
each other's hands with a jubilant pulse, and every 
eye answered back hope, inspiration, to the eye 
that looked into it. 

But how changed is all in a moment! Yester- 
day morning flags were set at half-mast. Even 
Sumter's flag is but half raised. As the day ad- 
vanced, emblems of mourning drooped from the 
highest windows to the sidewalk. The President 
■is assassinated! Men hold their breath, and turn 
pale at the appalling words. Citizens meet, and 



44 

shake hands, and part in silence. Words convey 
nothing when uttered. All attempt to express the 
nation's grief is utterly commonplace and insignifi- 
cant. An eclipse seems to have come upon the 
brilliancy of the flag, — a srnile seems irrelevant 
and sacrilegious. Even the fresh, green grass, just 
coming forth to meet the return of spring and the 
singing of birds, seems to wear the shadows of twi- 
light at noonday. The sun is less bright than be- 
fore ; and the very atmosphere holds in it, for the 
tearful eye, a strange ethereal element of gloom. 
Surely " the night cometh." And as we gather here 
this morning, after an absence of only two days, 
how appalling, in this cheerful home of our religious 
affections, are these wide-hung emblems of grief and 
anguish ! It is manly to weep to-day. The coming 
of the morning, and also the night, are strangely 
mingled. 

Had death overtaken any one of our brilliant 
military leaders in the field, we should have said 
it was a thing to be expected. Had any sudden 
reverse in the fortunes of war visited one of our 
armies, it would have been a terrible grief, but still 
a kind of calamity to which we have become accus- 
tomed. Had the President fallen by a chance 
shot in Richmond, or by the hand of some lurk- 
ing assassin, as he passed the fortifications through 
which our hearts did not consent to his going, 



45 



we should but have realized some of our transient 
forebodings. But after his sale return, and the 
triumph of our arms, which he took so much 
pleasure in telegraphing to the people, we had 
almost dismissed from our minds any fears for 
the safety of his life. And hence the telegram an- 
nouncing the death of the President at such a 
time, in such a way, falls upon us like a crash of 
thunder from an unclouded sky. 

Wearied with the duties of his high position, and 
the persistent annoyance of petty office-seekers, 
and unwilling to disappoint the people even in their 
unreasonable expectations, he sought an hour's recre- 
ation in the theatre. And what a horrible tragedy ! 
The actor, having thoroughly prepared his part, 
and being often defeated in one way and another 
from the fiendish acting of it, finds his opportunity 
at last. With the stealthy step of a base, brutal 
coward, with a damning lie on his tongue, and the 
heart of a demon in his breast, he approaches the 
generous, unsuspecting man in the rear of his seat, 
and, aiming the fatal weapon with practised hand 
at the back of his head, puts the ball directly 
through his brain, and then makes his escape through 
the screens and drapery and doors with which his 
calling had made him acquainted. There are no 
last words for wife or children. — no word for tin- 
people's heart to which he always spoke, — no pari- 



46 



ing counsel for a bereaved and almost bewildered 
nation. The hand that signed the emancipation 
'proclamation hangs helpless in death ; the mind 
which had borne so evenly the tremendous strain of 
four unparelleled years is hurled from its throne ; 
the great, good, magnanimous heart is stilled ; those 
generous lips which have spoken mercy so often, 
and would perhaps, like martyred Stephen's, have 
said in their last articulate speech, "Lord, lay not 
this sin to their charge," are sealed forever. The 
nation has lost a father ; the human race a sincere, 
devoted, and able leader ! 

I have had no time to analyze the character, or 
choose out words to express our sense of the worth, 
of the late Abraham Lincoln. But I may employ, 
with your approbation I am sure, the words used 
by Daniel Webster concerning Zachary Taylor : 
" He has left on the minds of the country a strong 
impression ; first, of his absolute honesty and integ- 
rity of character ; next, of his sound, practical good 
sense ; and, lastly, of the mildness, kindness, and 
friendliness of his temper towards all his country- 
men. " 

Yes : " towards all his countrymen." He was, on 
the very day of his untimely death, exerting all 
the kindness of his unselfish nature, and prepared, 
it is believed, to peril all his great popularity, in 
inaugurating a policy most lenient, most forgiving. 



47 

towards those who had forfeited every thing except 

the right to be hung. They have put aside their 
friend. They have murdered the new-born mercy 
which waited to bless them. No man could if he 
would, and no man was disposed to, do so much 
for them as Abraham Lincoln. 

And how the loyal people confided in him! how 
implicitly the common people trusted him! The 
world has scarcely seen the like. He came to the 
chair of the Chief Magistrate from the rough expe- 
rience of frontier life. He owed his election, and 
the favor with which he was received, to the be- 
lief, in the minds of the people, that he was an 
honest man. 

And did he disappoint that confidence ? Did he 
show himself unworthy? Did he ever incur the 
suspicion of dishonesty or corruption? Or did he 
ever swerve from what he conceived to be the 
path of duty to win popular applause? Never. On 
the other hand, so impartial was he in selecting 
men from all parties to fill the high offices of 
government, so artless was he in all that he did, 
so transparent were his deeds and his motives, 
that, by a popular vote scarcely paralleled, the 
people called him a second time to guide the na- 
tion for another four years. He knew nothing of 
tricks or double-dealing or party-shifts, or crooked 
policies. He was a sincere, impartial, straightfor- 



48 



ward, honest man. And the people saw it and 
felt it, and were glad of an opportunity to honor 
him with an overwhelming repetition of their well- 
placed confidence. What a noble example is he to 
all young men looking to office or popular regard ! 
With no military reputation, with no brilliant ora- 
tory, with no winning grace of manners, he was 
the foremost man for the highest office in the gift 
of a great, free, and intelligent people, once and 
again, because he was a man of absolute honesty 
and integrity of character. 

And besides these unselfish, impartial, upright ele- 
ments of character, there was a masterful common 
sense, a genial mother-wit, and a practical statesman- 
ship, which showed themselves in some of the most 
compact specimens of argument, happy avoidances 
of difficulty, and a thorough apprehension of popular 
instincts and judgments. 

He was unpolished in style, but he was profound 
in thought. He was pithy in his sentences, but origi- 
nal and patient in investigation ; rough on the exte- 
rior, but a jewel within, — 

" Rich in saving common sense." 

How much we owe to his unambitious example ; how 
much to his far-reaching discernment ; how much to 
his good-natured hearing of all sides ; how much to 
his steady calm judgment, which held the scales, in 



49 



the fury and gusts of the storm, as equally poised as 
if in the atmosphere of peace and calm ; how much 
to his great forbearance under stinging reproach; 
how much to his knowledge of and unwavering con- 
fidence in the people and the people's cause, God 
knows, but we know not as yet. May the day never 
come, when, by bitter contrast, we shall learn how 
wise and safe was the confidence which we reposed 
in him! 

This nation mourns to-day as it never mourned be- ' 
fore. The statesmen of the land had learned to trust 
him in the greatest exigencies ; the impatient were 
restrained by his moderation; the immovable and 
morose were moved and almost brought into time by 
his steady, sympathetic step forward ; the one-eyed 
were made ashamed of their ignorance by an hour 
in his society ; the revengeful learned magnanimity 
from his deeds. The soldiers loved him, and the sol- 
dier's mother loved him, and confided in him. The 
negroes loved him ; oh, how they will mourn for him ! 
Moses was not allowed to lead the children of Israel 
into the land of peace and plenty ; neither was he 
allowed himself to enter it, but only to survey its 
broad prospect from Pisgah's top. And so their de- 
liverer and ours is only permitted to come to the 
border, and, in these last few days, catch pleasing 
glimpses of the glorious, opening future. And as 
when Moses died, his eye not dim, and his natural 



50 

force not abated, there was mourning throughout all 
the camp, till the plain of Moab resounded with the 
cry of sires and sons, mothers and maidens ; so now 
there will be mourning in the camp, and mourning 
on the prairies, and far away over the mountains ; 
but nowhere keener anguish and disappointment 
than among the sable hosts whom his noble heart 
and hand has freed. All men unconsciously speak 
of him as our beloved President; and the hand of 
the assassin has embalmed him with all his virtues 
and greatness, and made him sacred and sublime in 
our fond, loving hearts, and in the heart of the world 
forever. 

Were I to select some one thing by which to charac- 
terize Abraham Lincoln, I should name his profound 
apprehension and appreciation of the popular instinct, 
— that instinct which is true to the right as the needle 
to the pole, in all storms, and on every sea. He be- 
lieved in God. He believed God was to be recog- 
nized in this war. He believed that the set of the 
loyal masses, — the deep, silent current, which bears 
on events, is in the line of God's advance ; and, thus 
believing, he governed himself by his apprehension of 
the people, and of God, as manifest in their silent set 
or drift. As the philosopher learns the plans of God 
from an unprejudiced study of Nature, so he learned 
the purposes of Gocl from the instincts of the people. 
As the naturalist discovers from the structure of the 



51 



animal what its mode of life and habits must be, so he 
saw from the essential peculiarities of our Govern- 
ment whither our future must tend. He did not 
mean to be ahead of the popular feeling ; for then 
there would be a re-action against his policy. He 
did not mean to be much behind it ; for then some 
other agent might be sought, through which to give 
it expression : and so, regarding the voice of the loyal 
people, in this great crisis of the Republic, as the 
voice of God, he kept his ear open and his eye attent, 
and marshalled his policy not quite abreast of the di- 
vinely led masses. He sought not to control an age 
thus moved and inspired, but to be controlled by it. 

Herein was his wisdom, herein his greatness, 
herein his power. This was the secret of his success, 
the source of that light which, in all coming time, 
shall gild with unfading splendor the name of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

As the Netherlands mourned for William, Prince 
of Orange, as France mourned for Henry IV., " We 
have lost our father, we have lost our father ! " so 
America mourns to-day. 

" Such was lie; his work is done; 
But, while the races of mankind endure, 
Let his great example stand 
Colossal, seen of every land; 
Ami keep the soldier linn, the statesman pure, 
Till in all lands and through all human story. 
The path (if duty lie the way to glory. 



52 

But speak no more of his renown, 
Lay your earthly fancies down ; 
And in the vast cathedral leave him, 
God accept him, Christ receive him ! " 

1. And now, my friends, what are the lessons of 
this great calamity ? First of all, submission. God 
reigns : we are absolutely dependent and sinful. The 
Emperor Mauritius seeing all his children slain before 
his face at the command of the bloody tyrant and 
usurper, Phocas, himself expecting the next stroke, 
exclaimed aloud, in the words of David : " Righteous 
art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judgments." 
This event takes us by surprise ; but the origin, ma- 
turity, and perpetration of this awful crime, was all 
under the sleepless eye of God. For reasons which 
we cannot fathom now, nor find, he has permitted 
it. Perhaps, when this day, the lith of April, for- 
ever marked in our calendar ; marked by the hum- 
bling of the flag at Sumter ; marked by the exaltation 
of the flag four years after, — perhaps, when the 
14th of April comes round four years hence, we shall 
know more of God's designs in permitting this foul 
murder of our beloved President. There is ONE 
whom the hand of violence cannot reach ; and he 
has not led us thus far to desert and destroy us now. 
Meanwhile, as becomes us, let us bow our heads in 
meek submission to the divine will ! Surely his foot- 
steps are in the great deep ; his designs are hidden 



53 



from us in the dark; but let us trust him; let us 
cleave unto him ! Submitting penitently to the rod 
of affliction, let us put our hand in his, and say, Fath- 
er, lead ; Father, spare and bless ! 

2. A second lesson is this : Execute justice in the 
land. What is the foundation of our confidence in 
God? Is it not that he will do right? Is it not 
what David says over and over again in all his trials ? 
— justice and judgment are the habitation of his 
throne. And just these — justice and judgment, are 
the foundation of every throne, and of every gov- 
ernment. I spoke on Thursday, as far as it was ap- 
propriate to my theme, of the tremendous mistake 
and folly and sin for the people of a great nation to 
think that they can neglect or violate the laws of 
God with impunity. Just here has been our danger. 
There has been a miserable, morbid, bastard philan- 
thropy, which, if it did not make the murderer's couch 
a bed of flowers, and set his table with butter and 
honey, made him an object of sympathy, and, after 
a while, of executive clemency. We are weak in 
our sense of justice. Why, how long is it since a 
man was pursued in the streets of Washington, and, 
though begging for his life, shot to mutilation ? He 
was guilty of a foul crime ? Yes ; but did that give 
the injured man a right to murder him ? Are there 
no courts, no ministers of justice, in the land*.' But 
the murderer was acquitted with applause in the 



54 



court-room. Only this very spring, a young woman 
shot one of the clerks dead in the hall of the treas- 
ury-building. To be sure, she said he had broken 
his vow to marry her*. And, when I was in Washing- 
ton a few weeks since, it was confidently expected 
that she, too, would be acquitted. And here in Massa- 
chusetts, not to speak of other States now, where the 
punishment of murder is death, the guilty wretch — 
who could brood over his infernal plan for weeks, 
and finally, after several attempts on the same day, 
execute it upon an innocent, unsuspecting young 
man, and all for the sake of a few hundreds, or, at 
the most, thousands, of dollars — is allowed to live, 
and become an object of sympathy. To shield his 
forfeited life imperils that of every young man who 
stands behind a counter in Massachusetts. Living, 
he is an encouragement to all persons like-minded to 
do likewise. Yea, saith the governor, ye shall not 
surely die. 

And so in regard to the leaders of this infernal 
Rebellion : the feeling was gaining ground here to 
let them off really without penalty. They are our 
brethren, it is said. Then, we reply, they have added 
fratricide to the enormity of their other crimes, and 
are unspeakably the more guilty ! 

The punishment which a nation inflicts on crime 
is the nation's estimate of the evil and guilt of that 
crime. Let these men go, and we have said practi- 



oo 

cally that treason is merely a difference of political 
opinion. 

I do not criticise the parole which was granted ; 
though, for the life of me, 1 cannot see one shadow 
of reason for expecting it will be kept by men who 
have broken their most solemn and deliberate oath to 
the same Government. It was not kept by the rebels 
who took it at Vicksburg. Nor will I criticise, for I 
cannot understand, the policy which allows General 
Lee to commend his captured army for " devotion to 
country," and "duty faithfully performed." But I 
considered the manner in which the parole was in- 
dorsed and interpreted as practically insuring a par- 
don ; and to pardon them is a violation of my in- 
stincts, as it is of the laws of the land, and of the 
laws of God. 1 believe in the exercise of magna- 
nimity ; but mercy to those leaders is eternal cruelty 
to this nation, — is an unmitigated, unmeasured curse 
to unborn generations ! It is a wrong against which 
every fallen soldier in his grave, from Pennsylvania 
to Texas, utters an indignant and unsilenced rebuke. 
Because of this mawkish leniency four years ago, 
Treason stalked in the streets, and boasted defiance 
in the halls of the capitol ; Secession organized un- 
molested, and captured our neglected forts and starv- 
ing garrisons. Because of a drivelling, morbid, per- 
verted sense of justice, the enemy of the Government 
has been permitted to go at large, under the shadow 



56 

of the capitol, all through this war. God only knows 
how much we have suffered for the lack of justice. 
And now to restore these leaders seems like moral 
insanity. Better than this, give us back the stern, 
inflexible indignation of the old Puritan, and the lex 
talionis of the Hebrew Lawgiver. Our consciences 
are debauched, our instincts confounded, our laws set 
aside, by this indorsement of a blind, passionate phi- 
lanthropy. 

Theodore Parker has a passage in his work on re- 
ligion, in which he gathers into heaven the debauchee, 
the swarthy Indian, the imbruted Calmuck, and the 
grim-faced savage, with his hands still red and reek- 
ing with the blood of his slaughtered human victims. 
And the idea, to me, of placing the leaders of this 
diabolical Rebellion in a position where they might 
come again red-handed into the councils of the na- 
tion, is equally revolting and sacrilegious. It makes 
me shudder ; and yet I think there was an indecent 
leniency beginning to manifest itself towards them, 
which would have allowed to these men, by and by, 
votes and honors and lionizing. The soldiers did not 
relish this prospect. They are not to be deceived by 
the misapplication of the term "magnanimity" to an 
act that turns loose into the bosom of society the men 
who systematically murdered our prisoners by starva- 
tion, and again and again shot prisoners of war after 
they had surrendered, — shot gallant officers, even 



57 

in these last battles, after being told that they were 
mortally wounded, and strung up Union men in 
North Carolina, because they had enlisted in the Fed- 
eral army. 

And now, ive see and feel just as the soldiers do. 
The spirit that shot down our men on the way to the 
capital ; the spirit that shot Ellsworth at Alexandria ; 
the spirit that organized treachery, treason, and re- 
bellion ; the spirit that armed those leaders to strike 
at the life of the Government, — is the same hell-born 
spirit that dastardly takes the life of our beloved 
President, is the same atrocious spirit that seeks 
the bed-chamber of a sick and helpless man, and cuts 
his throat, and strikes the murderous dirk at the 
heart of every attendant. We see its malignant, 
fiendish nature now ! 

And what shall be done with these secessionists if 
we succeed in arresting them before they get out of 
the country, with the blood of the President, and of 
the Minister of State on their hands ? Pity them as 
insane ? parole them as prisoners of war ? Doubtless, 
like the St. Albans raiders, they have their commis- 
sion from Richmond ! Does this make your blood 
boil? is this too shocking to suppose? Well, shall 
we hang them ? — hang the less guilty, and let the 
more guilty go free? hang the miserable, worthless 
hirelings, and let the principals and chiefs live ? To 
do that is to arm men, and goad them to lake ven- 



58 



geance into their own hands. The instinctive justice 
of the human conscience must be satisfied by the 
action of Government, or it will have private re- 
venue. There is a consciousness of right in the 
masses, that will not be tampered with in such a 
time as this. Not the branches of this accursed tree, 
but the trunk and the roots, must be exterminated 
from the land. Hear me, patriots, sires of murdered 
sons, weeping wives and orphans, — I say exterminat- 
ed ! " Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a 
murderer, and ye shall take no satisfaction for the 
life of him that is fled, that he come again to dwell 
in the land; for blood it defileth the land, and 
the land cannot be cleansed but by the blood of him 
that shed it." And, when David died, he charged 
Solomon to fulfil this divine command in regard to 
Joab and Shimei, who had been too strong for him 
during his life. 

3. One thing more : let us face the future, and 
all the solemn responsibilities of these uncertain hours, 
with courage. We have God on the throne that no 
violence can reach, — the God who has always been 
with us. " Why art thou cast down, my soul ? and 
why art thou disquieted in me ? Hope thou in God ; 
for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my 
countenance and my God." 

And then, such is the happy structure of our Gov- 
ernment, that no assassination can arrest its wheels. 



59 

A terrible calamity lias overtaken us ; but it will only 
the more exhibit the inherent vitality of our institu- 
tions;, and the greater strength of the people. 

Andrew Johnson, who now becomes the Chief 
Magistrate by the mysterious providence of God, is 
unquestionably an able man. He has been much in 
public life, and never failed, except in his speech on 
inauguration-day, to meet the exigencies of his 
position. Besides, he has had a schooling in Tennes- 
see which may have prepared him to lead at this 
very time. When I was in Washington, four years 
ago, I heard much in his praise. He told the seces- 
sionists, who were just then leaving their seats in the 
Senate to inaugurate the Rebellion, — told them to 
their faces, for substance : " Were I President of the 
United States, I would arrest you as traitors, and try 
you as traitors, and convict you as traitors, and hang 
you as traitors." And, judging from the speech which 
he made at Washington after the news of the fall of 
Richmond, he has not changed his mind. 

We want no revenge: we will wait the forms and 
processes of law. We want justice tempered with 
mercy. We want the leaders punished, but the 
masses of the people pardoned. Let us confide in 
him as our President. And do you make crime odious. 
disfranchise every man who lias held office in the 
rebel government, and ever} commissioned officer 
in the rebel army ; make the halter certain to the 



60 

intelligent and influential, who are guilty of per- 
jury and treason, and so make yourself a terror 
to him that doeth evil, and a praise to him that 
doeth good, — and we will stand by you, Andrew 
Johnson. 

Another ground of courage is, that the nation 
is a unit against rebellion to-clay as it never was 
before. It is too much to hope, . I suppose, that 
any traitor will have his eyes opened to see the 
true character of the awful work in which he has 
been engaged, though it seems as if such an atro- 
cious butchery were enough to make him see it; 
but of this be sure, that all loyal men are united 
now : and woe be to the secessionist who does not 
instantly sue for mercy or fly the country ! I have 
seen them launch a great ship. The ways are 
laid solid and secure; and then the workmen split 
away, one after another, the blocks from under- 
neath the keel. Gradually the huge structure set- 
tles upon the slippery ways, and glides majestically 
into her future element. The two ways under our 
ship of State are justice and mercy. In the provi- 
dence of God, block after block has been knocked 
away, prop after prop removed, till now, just ready 
to glide into the new future, she is settling all 
her weight upon her ways, — ways made slippery 
by the blood of the murdered Chief Magistrate, and 
Minister: woe, woe, woe to him who puts himself 



61 



in the line of her course ! Infinitely better for him 
had he been strangled at the birth ! 

Be sure, this people will mourn from sea to sea ; 
but be sure also, that any provocation will bring out 
the indignant, instant, sympathetic cry from every 
lip, " Die, traitors, assassins all ! live, the republic, 
liberty, and law!" 

The God of infinite justice and mercy be our 
helper ! Amen. 

Note. — Preached Sunday morning, April 1G, after the news of the 
assassination of President Lincoln. 



MEMORIAL SERMONS, 



THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 



SOME OF THE RESULTS OF THE WAIL 



THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT. 



BY 

EDWIN B. WEBB, 

PASTOR OF 9HAWMUT CHURCH, BOSTON. 



BOSTON: 

Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, 3 Cornhili. 



1865. 






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